154 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



solicitude, he tenders this excellent advice to his hearers — he it your 

 wise and nohle choice to select the latter. What then, he inquires, 

 is Religion ? Is it a cold and abstract creed which demands our 

 assent, for the sake of mere formality ? Or, is it that which urges 

 and hallows all our inquiries and our labours? It is a Revelation 

 from God, himself the source of all knowledge. Whatever path we 

 pursue, whether we stretch our thoughts to the material universe, 

 or penetrate into the wondrous mechanism of our own physical 

 constitution, or follow out the creations of mind, we trace equally 

 the power and wisdom of the Creator. All rays of good converge 

 to the same centre : all forms of mental and moral and religious 

 improvement are substantially and ultimately one. When ignorance 

 pervades and shadows a land, all this is designed to promote wise 

 and gracious ends : on the other hand, when the torch of knowledge 

 is lighted, it blazes at God's bidding, and is meant to accomplish 

 the purposes of His divine will. As such, let us cherish and follow 

 and revere it. Literature and Science are mere humble agencies, 

 to perfect us in the love of truth and righteousness. It is manifest, 

 from the experience of all ages, that there may be science, there 

 may be eloquence, there may be talent and knowledge, without a 

 single care or question as to man's immortality. In one word, there 

 may be no religious wisdom. What is this wisdom ? It is that 

 which, studying and promoting the moral, mental and civil happi- 

 ness of man here, forgets not that this state of being will pass away, 

 and be succeeded by a state without end, eternal. What is Chris- 

 tianity ? It is a Revelation from Heaven, to reconcile God to man, 

 man to his fellow creatures, man to real happiness. Can that be 

 opposed to mental energy ? Can that be inimical to the pure 

 expanding inquisitive ambition of an immortal mind? Can the 

 heathenish infidel cherish in his cold withering, blighting dogmas, 

 a higher nobler love of science and literature, an intenser and sin- 

 cerer wish to spread their benedictions and their blessings, than he 

 who goes forth " armed with the shield of faith and the helmet of 

 salvation" ? It is high time to disenchant the infidel of his insult- 

 ing boast, that the friends to Religion are foes to Knowledge. It 

 is high time to show and to prove, that Christianity is the Queen of 

 Knowledge, the nursing mother of all that is lovely and great, of all 

 that is good and useful. 



We cordially and perfectly concur with Dr. Jones in his princi- 

 ples as exemplified in the preceding notes selected from his eloquent 

 and instructive lecture ; and we maintain, for a clear and consola- 

 tory induction fully demonstrated, that man is endowed by the 

 Creator with an innate religious as well as intellectual nature, and 

 that no System of Education can ever be extensively successful or 

 permanently beneficial to society, that does not absolutely enjoin, as 

 an eternal obligation, the co-equal and co-relative culture of man's 

 religious and intellectual powers. 



